Law Reform Now Conferences: Criminal Law 3, 6-7 September; Family Law 13-15 September 2021

What next in law reform? The ‘Law Reform Now Conferences’ seek to answer this simple but crucially important question, in the fields of family and criminal law respectively.

In collaboration with the family law and criminal law teams at the Law Commission for England and Wales, and feeding into the Commission’s consultation for its 14th Programme, each conference will identify and critique a selection of big ideas for reform. We include a call for abstracts for both conferences below, and full details for each event.  

Criminal Law Reform Now Conference 3 and 6-7 September 2021

Conference page

If you could change one thing in the criminal law, what would it be? 

Speakers at the CLRN Conference will present and explore ten different answers to this question, showcasing important ideas for criminal law reform from across academia and legal practice. 

Conference format

On the first day of the conference (Friday, 3rd September)  each speaker present their proposals back-to-back to a general audience in 15 min slots. This will be 'live streamed' between 15:00-20:00, in a virtual format, to a generalist audience. The second and third days of the conference (Monday 6 and Tuesday 7 September) will narrow to full day round-table scrutiny of each proposal in turn, led by nominated respondents. The round-table sessions will be hybrid, allowing participants to attend in person (University of Birmingham) or virtually as they prefer. 

Call for abstracts

If you would like to be one of the speakers, please send CLRNN Director Dr John Child (J.J.Child@bham.ac.uk) your abstract of c.250 words, outlining the reform proposal that you would like to present. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 31 May 2021. We are keen to attract a diverse range of speakers in terms of demographic, career stage, and proposal type, so please do not hesitate in submitting your ideas. We will come back to you in early June to confirm our final line-up.   

Commitment: When submitting an abstract for consideration, please note the following commitments on acceptance:

• Pre-conference briefs: Speakers will provide a ‘conference brief’ for their proposal – c.2000 words – by 16 July 2021. The briefs will be collated and submitted by us to the Law Commission to meet their July consultation deadline. They will also be used for the conference; pre-circulated to round-table participants and respondents. 
• Conference dates: We expect all speakers to be available for first day of the conference on 3 September (between 15:00-20:00), and at least one day of the roundtable sessions on 6-7 September (between 10:00-14:00).
• Edited collection: Following the conference, we will bring the proposals (and responses) together into an edited collection with Hart - subject to finalisation of the contract. We will ask speakers to develop their proposals into book chapters (c.8-10,000 words) by September 2022.  

Please contact Dr John Child (J.J.Child@bham.ac.uk) with any questions. Note that we hosted a similar conference with the Law Commission for its 13th Programme in 2016, and the materials from this can help explain what we are looking for. See too the edited collection which resulted from the Conference.   

We are grateful to have received funding from the Society of Legal Scholars to support the event. 

*** For the latest news on the CLRN Network, including our ongoing projects, see www.clrnn.co.uk and follow us on twitter @CLRNNetwork. ***

Family Law Reform Now Conference 13-15 September 2021

Conference page

If you could change one thing in the family law, what would it be?  

Speakers at the FLRN Conference will present and explore ten different answers to this question, showcasing important ideas for family law reform from across academia and legal practice. Organised in collaboration with the Law Commission, conference proposals will be provided to the Commission as consultation responses for its 14th Programme of Law Reform; as well as feeding into our three day conference and planned collection to follow.  

Conference format 

On the first day of the conference (Monday, 13 September) each speaker presents their proposals back-to-back to a general audience in 15 min slots. This will be 'live streamed' between 13:00-18:00, in a virtual format, to a generalist audience. The second and third days of the conference (Tuesday 14 & Wednesday 15 September) will narrow to full day round-table scrutiny of each proposal in turn, led by nominated respondents. The round-table sessions will be hybrid, allowing participants to attend in person (University of Birmingham) or virtually as they prefer. 

Call for abstracts

If you would like to be one of the speakers, please send to Dr Charlotte Bendall (c.l.bendall@bham.ac.uk) your abstract of c.250 words, outlining the reform proposal that you would like to present. The deadline for abstracts is Monday 14 June 2021. We are keen to attract a diverse range of speakers in terms of demographic, career stage, and proposal type, so please do not hesitate in submitting your ideas. We will come back to you in mid-June to confirm our final line-up.   

Commitment

When submitting an abstract for consideration, please note the following commitments on acceptance:

• Pre-conference briefs: Speakers will provide a ‘conference brief’ for their proposal – c.2000 words – by 16 July 2021. The briefs will be collated and submitted by us to the Law Commission to meet their July consultation deadline. They will also be used for the conference; pre-circulated to round-table participants and respondents. 
• Conference dates: We expect all speakers to be available for first day of the conference on the 13 September (between 13:00-18:00), and at least one day of the roundtable sessions on the 14 -15 September (between 10:00-16:00).
• Edited collection: Following the conference, we will bring the proposals (and responses) together into an edited collection with Hart - subject to finalisation of the contract. We will ask speakers to develop their proposals into book chapters (c.8-10,000 words) by September 2022.         

Please contact Dr Charlotte Bendall (c.l.bendall@bham.ac.uk) with any questions. Note that a similar conference will be hosted at the University of Birmingham by our colleague Dr John Child exploring Criminal Law Reform Now. Dr Child also hosted a similar conference with the Law Commission for its 13th Programme in 2016, and the materials from this may help to explain what this type of conference has previously achieved. See too the edited collection which resulted from the Conference.   

We are grateful to have received funding from the Society of Legal Scholars to support the event.  

***For the latest news on the FLRN Network, including our ongoing projects follow us on twitter @ReformFamily***